Fishing Station, Logan Mills

A former fishing store and boathouse built sometime between 1848 and 1894. The building is two-storey in height, rectangular on plan and it is constructed in red brick. A single-storey and T-plan former fishing station cottage is located to the south of the boathouse. The boathouse is next to the western shoreline of Luce Bay on the peninsula known as the Rhins of Galloway.

The north elevation is three bays wide with a pedimented entranceway, breaking the roof eaves, to the centre of the first floor. Small window openings flank the entrance. A walkway leads from higher ground into the building at first floor level. There are larger, flanking window openings to the outer bays at ground floor level.

The south elevation has four window openings and two blocked-up entrance openings to the ground floor, and two smaller window openings to the first floor. The east elevation has a replacement boathouse door facing the shore which was added after 2011. The west elevation has a single opening with a replacement door to the ground floor.

Some of the window openings are blocked-up and some have multi-pane glazing to the upper half and louvred sections below. The roof is piended and is covered in grey slates with red sandstone ridging and two rooflights in the southern roof pitch.

The interior brickwork is predominantly whitewashed, and the roof trusses and rafters are exposed. There is timber flooring to the first floor and a partially concreted dirt floor to the ground floor.

The remains of a slipway to the shore to the east may still survive (noted in previous listed building record).

Historical background

Logan Mills was historically part of the lands of Logan estate. The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1845-49 describes the ruins of the windmill, and the corn and saw mills as in the ownership of the McDouall or McDowall family of Logan House (OS1/35/81/18). The later fishing station was also owned by the McDowalls who owned the fishing and netting rights in Luce Bay on the eastern side and those on the western (Port Logan) side of the Rhins of Galloway peninsula.

The boathouse is first shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1894, adjacent to an old corn kiln, indicating it was constructed after the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey, sometime between 1848 and 1894. A T-shaped fishing station cottage is shown to the immediate south of the boathouse (there are currently development proposals in place to demolish this cottage, 21/2380/FUL).

Historic photographs, taken in 1974, show a timber shelter once adjoined the south elevation of the boathouse (Canmore). Aerial photographs show that this was partially roofless by 2011, and recent photos show is has since been removed (2023).